"Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.

Government intervention caused the depression and then fueled, prolonged and exacerbated the great depression.

That part is true. The Fed actively pursued a deflationary policy as interventionist Rothbard advocated. They tightened credit to protect the dollar and caused incomes to fall which made it harder to service debt which led to a spiral of bankruptcies. Deflation caused the first part of the Great Depression. It was THE reason. And that intervention was a major government failure.

Originally Posted by AZJoe

(First under Hoover with the fair trade and fair labor policies, the high wage policies, the increased taxes, the massive pork spending projects,

So you think union rules, tariffs, tax hikes and public works projects like the Hoover Dam caused the stock market to fall 86%? Those things didn't ever cause cause the stock market to drop 86% and unemployment over 20% before or since. Wonder why. Real puzzler. Maybe discarding that theory would be worthwhile.

The collapse of 1920 was deeper. But most people don’t learn about it in the public indoctrination system (aka public education).

.

Is the 1920 comparable to 2020? Was the average person and business as leveraged in 1920 as 2020? I am going to guess not. And that being the case, how many years will going through bankruptcies last now if things are just allowed to "readjust"?

"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul
“They are what they hate.” - B4L

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

So you think union rules, tariffs, tax hikes and public works projects like the Hoover Dam caused the stock market to fall 86%? Those things didn't ever cause cause the stock market to drop 86% and unemployment over 20% before or since.

Questions that unfortunately reflect the typical false statist dogma of history and mythical statist Keynesian economic theory taught in the public indoctrination system.

The prior ten years easy money policies and artificial credit expansion of the Federal Reserve inflated the 1929 stock market bubble that inevitably popped. (This is Known as the Federal Reserve Boom-Bust Cycle.)

Yes. Government intervention massively exacerbated and needlessly extended the subsequent "Great Depression", and pushed the unemployment rate up, and prolonged the depression to over ten years. (First under Hoover with the fair trade and fair labor policies, the high wage policies, the increased taxes, the massive pork spending projects, the federal levies, the artificial price supports, the Norris-Laguardia Act, the Federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the artificial public credit extensions, the public works projects, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, the bailouts, and other redistributions and market distortions, followed by the FDR’s equally disastrous New Deal projects). Yes, the artificial wage inflation policies and trade wars and rest of intervention caused the unemployment to rise much higher and last much longer.

Government intervention impeded the free markets ability to regulate the economy back to normal by purging all the bad debt, mal-investment, distorted rate, moral hazards, distorted price signals and wages, over-leveraging, artificial credit expansion, the inflation shifting wealth from workers and saver to speculators, the national debt, the redistribution of wealth, the government regulations, taxes, the excess leverage, the economic infections and poisons, etc.

Originally Posted by Krugminator2

Is the 1920 comparable to 2020?

Yes, the laws of economics, and free markets apply just the same in 1920s as in 2020. It’s like saying we should ignore the laws of mathematics because 2020 is different from 1920.

Originally Posted by Krugminator2

Was the average person and business as leveraged in 1920 as 2020? I am going to guess not. And that being the case, how many years will going through bankruptcies last now if things are just allowed to "readjust"?

Nope. Government and Federal Reserve policies through their endless cycles of intervention, artificial credit expansion, distortions, and Quantitative inflation have made the debt load (national debt, unfunded liabilities, corporate debt, consumer debt, student debt and more) far worse now. That is all the more reason why it should be allowed to be purged from the system as quickly as possible.
Will it take one year, two years, or four years if allowed to be properly purged by free market? I don’t know. What is certain, however, is that more government intervention inhibits and prevents theses distortions, and bad debt from being purged. Because the debt and distortions are so much worse now, the effects by government/fed intervention to further distort will magnify, exacerbate and prolonged even longer and worse, and probably far worse than in the 1930s. One, two or five years of pain to cure, is better than ten, twenty, fifty years of pain that doesn’t cure but only makes the economy sicker.

Krugminator’s questions reflect that Krugmninator has zero understanding of the Federal Reserve boom-bust cycles, or Austrian economics. That is wholly unacceptable for someone that has been on this forum for over five years.

After five years on the forum, there is no excuse for being ignorant of such basics.

Last edited by AZJoe; 03-28-2020 at 11:48 AM.

"Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.

Krugminator’s questions reflect that Krugmninator has zero understanding of the Federal Reserve boom-bust cycles, or Austrian economics. That is wholly unacceptable for someone that has been on this forum for over five years.

Make a little effort to at least educate yourself.

After five years on the forum, there is no excuse for being ignorant of such basics.

Here are the following books I have read by Austrians. Have the physical copies nicely dogeared, underlined and coffee stained on all but Rothbard's which I got from the library system.

(RPF) - Who remembers TARP 2008 and the related bailouts and stimulus? You might not remember, but the government remembers. Politicians remember. And they learned from that experience.

The outrage was nearly universal. The common people of the left and the right were vocally opposed. The phone lines at Congress were flooded. A new movement was started called Occupy Wall Street, which in the beginning included people from across the political spectrum, opposed to crony corporatism, Oligarchy and Plutocracy. “Too big to fail” and “socialism for the rich, rugged capitalism for the masses” were popular war cries.

Fast forward to 2020. It’s time again for bailouts. But this time, there is a bipartisan twist. Democrat and Republican leaders alike support payments to every American. Some find this strange. Many people don't want or need it. Not everyone is one check away from the streets. Why is the establishment pushing this, and in such a bipartisan manner? McConnell and Pelosi agree, this is the most important and urgent action they can take.

The answer is simple. They learned from the past. Call it stimulus. Call it relief to people who have lost income. Call it redistribution of wealth. Call it a step towards Universal Basic Income. Call it the benevolence of McConnell, Schumer, Pelosi, Trump and Mnuchin.

It is being called many things, except for the one thing that it is above all else. It’s a bribe. America is being paid to be silent. Here’s some cash. Don't protest, don't complain, don't say you didn't get anything this time.

Now step aside while trillions of dollars once again flow to special interests and the murky shadows and corners of the crony corporatist world. You took your bribe, now sit down and shut up.

"Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metonymic phrase critiquing superficial appeasement. It is attributed to Juvenal, a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century AD — and is used commonly in cultural, particularly political, contexts.

In a political context, the phrase means to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace[1] — by offering a palliative: for example food (bread) or entertainment (circuses).

"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul
“They are what they hate.” - B4L

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul
“They are what they hate.” - B4L

The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

Most folks in Amerika have no problem and consider it a very good, can’t wait, happy bribe

Folks like us, it’s not even a bribe. It was forced down our throats as if it were medicine, except the real shot in the arm is yet to come. Figuratively, and realistically speaking.

“The right to life is the source of all rights—and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible. Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product, is a slave.”

Everyone in my area. My not closed business is crazy busy. I made several sales and it's been a non stop stream of in person customers and phone calls all day. They are spending the handouts as fast as they get them.

My economy is stimulated. I am smart enough to know the cost down the road though.